And we're THANKFUL

For so many things, but really thankful for the time we spent together as a family this past week--man it was full!

Stephen took the whole week off from school along with the kids and we got a TON of things off the "honey do" list and then on Tuesday we headed off to College Station for some McKneely family fun!

Wednesday was full of preparations for the FEAST. I got in a good run and am THANKFUL to my BIL Andy who I know ran slower than normal so that I didn't have to run alone. And while Grandma took my niece and Kaitlyn (who are 6 weeks apart) to go shopping for a little 8 year old girl in the foster system, Andy and I took this crew to the park to play.....then after awhile the rest of the gang joined us......


On the day of FEASTING, all the McKneelys joined in the festivities plus a few extra. When Stephen was in high school he went to Russia as a foreign exchange student. The student he exchanged with is a guy named Ilya. He considers the McKneelys his "other" family and since he now lives in South Carolina and works for GE whenever there is an American holiday he finds his way back to College Station to spend it with us. He's now married and has a baby, and we've never met his family, so we were excited to meet them all! They were lovely and Matthew really got a kick out of having a little friend to run around with.

The eating was awesome of course and took the hands of everyone--we enjoyed all of it for sure!

We gathered (and had to drag some, ahem) the family for a group photo.....We watched the Cowboys pull off a late game win, and watched the possible final Aggie & Longhorn rival game which we lost in the final moments.

on Friday we enjoyed a family soccer game, a little shopping, and then took the whole group of us (all 16) went to see a matinee of 'The Muppets" a silly family friendly movie that made our kids laugh. They had no prior knowledge of Kermit, or Miss Piggy, or Gonzo (who Sam later identified as the guy whose nose looked like a cheese puff that had been painted blue), but they loved the whole movie experience. And then we went to dinner at Raising Caines--YUM!!

But most of all we enjoyed being together, GOBBLE, GOBBLE--

It's a Dad Camp out

Stephen goes camping at least once a month, lately it's been more than that (ahem) and so we decided he owed the kids a camp out.

They were really excited:(Matthew thought he was going until they pulled out of the drive way and he was really really sad about that) But here they are all packed up and ready to go. They were ready for the cooler weather and were dressed in layers and coats.

It took a bit to set up camp and get dinner on, but Stephen told me they were warm, and slept well, Lindsey may have been a bit young to go, he said she whined a bit but she's a "big kid" now, being 4 and all, and there was no way she was going to be left behind.

Thanks Dad for a great time! Let's do it again soon.

A baptism, a bump, a blu-ray

So we had an eventful Saturday this past weekend.

#1 It was the first weekend in 8 that Stephen wasn't on a camp out, he got to mow the lawn, go to the soccer game with us, etc. It was great to have him home.

#2 Our good friend JR Wolfe was baptized. Stephen has been their home teacher for over a year, his wife Shonda was inactive but Stephen kept visiting and had a great "doorstep" relationship with them. Shonda had a great visiting teacher, whose husband replaced Stephen as ward mission leader, and relationships were strengthened through lots of different experiences. So long story short, they've been coming to church and JR took the lessons and decided to be baptized.

The baptism was going to be great. I was asked to lead the music and Stephen was asked to give a talk. Things were going great until.....

#3 we had a minor fender bender with someone on the way to the baptism. It was really dumb. We were stopped at a red light behind one car. The light turned green and we all proceeded down the street. The cars in the lane just next to us didn't start going right away and so a car honked, this combined with some glare or something caused the driver in front of us to BRAKE HARD 10 feet into the intersection. We bumped her. She claimed with the glare she wasn't sure if it actually had turned green so she stopped. We persuaded her to follow us to the church so we could at least get there on time and Stephen stayed in the parking lot to exchange info with her.

The damage so so incredibly minor but you know how this goes, she wants to call the police (who ends up thinking we're crazy because there's not enough damage for a police report). The screws from our license plate holder scratched her bumper. The impact didn't even break our plastic license plate holder and how she's claiming back pain etc. GOOD GRIEF!

Anyway so this chaos spills over into the baptismal service, Stephen and I are tag teaming back and forth, I go out to wait for the police while he gives his talk, etc. Anyway, there always is something that happens at a baptism to try and run it off course, we're just glad it was with us and not JR's family. He was great and so happy!

And I meant to get a picture of him, but in all the chaos it didn't happen, I think you understand.

#4 But for fun that evening we had a date, at home, complete with Freebirds burritos, and Starwars Episode I on blu-ray upstairs in the media room, with Rachel and Kodie who brought yummy cheesecake to celebrate his and Lindsey's birthday! YUM!

The day after trick or treat...

is my Lindsey's birthday!!!

And this year she turned 4.

This was a SUPER DUPER BIG DEAL to her, this age is HUGE for birthdays, there is scarcely something as exciting as having a birthday. It seems to be a bigger deal for this little one than my others and I think it's because Matthew tends to be her nemesis, and his sole purpose (according to her) is to make life complicated and thwart all things fun, and turning one year older means she moves toward being one of my "big kids" and away from the "baby".

Needless to say she's been telling everyone of her upcoming event: kind checkers at stores, neighbors we barely know who come out to get their paper at the same time we're walking by on our way to school, all my adult friends from church or those I know at the school, etc.

So let's get to how she spent her special day: at breakfast (for which we ate waffles at her request) she got to open her presents: She got a lunch box and this little dress up outfit. For her birthday she had requested a purple sparkly leotard, which I couldn't exactly find but I DID find this plain leotard with cute little slippers and headband. She then wore it basically for 3 days--she loves it and loves all the attention she gets when she wears it from admiring adults, who she then tells that she's now 4. =) After dropping off the kids at school, we went to Target to get her a different lunch box because the one we'd got her was defective. The new one is a super cute frog one (of course) that looks like a purse and is so sheik I could get away with carrying it.

Then we raced home (but stopped through McDonalds for a happy meal for lunch) to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa Lewis who came over to visit her on this special day.

Grandpa Lewis had made her a crown (she requested it and it so lucky to have an artist for a grandpa) and she got a remote control car for her "littlest pet shop" toys--she loves it and so do her siblings (especially Matthew and that gets tricky but we're working on it).

When Matthew went down for his nap we made her birthday cake (strawberry with pink frosting and rainbow flower sprinkles) and spent some special time together until the bigger kids got home from school. And enjoyed a quick visit and hug from her Aunt Pearl.
Tuesdays are a busy day with after school activities, she got a phone call from her cousins in Houston, and later from her Aunt Rachel. We had to start early on her dinner of choice (home made pizza and salad) which we enjoyed.And then we had her cake and ice cream! Just look at this happy face!

Happy Birthday to my special girl, (pssst...I love you)

BOO!

Halloween again was a whirlwind with how busy we've been. Halloween fell on a Monday night and so on Saturday evening there was a "trunk or treat" at our church.

Mom was gone on a much deserved scrapbook retreat and since she's the resident picture taker, no pictures of this were taken.

Stephen had been away on a camp out and Aunt Rachel (complete with her super hero cape) came to save the day and let both mom and dad be away from Friday afternoon to Saturday evening (THANKS RACH!!)

Dad was running late so "super Rach" got all 4 kids dressed in costume, fed a snack and to the church (no small feat I assure you). And Stephen arrived there (with all the scouts) shortly after the trunk or treat started.Actually I take back the whole "no pictures" thing, a friend did snap this great picture of Stephen, he was dressed up as a "tired scoutmaster".

HALLOWEEN!!

(and mom was back so photos were taken:)

Matthew was a frog--I was supposed to put a crown on his head and make him a frog prince to go along with Lindsey and Sam's costume but alas another thing we didn't quite get to. This kid was hilarious! He totally GOT IT about going up to the door, getting candy (most often one in each hand) and walking back to the stroller so he could ride on to the next house. He was so much fun! Lindsey was a princess--she is often dressed up as a princess, we have multiple options of dresses and accessories, this was her own creation. The crown had seen better days and been played with a bit to much in the weeks leading to the big day. But she was lovely! Sam was a DRAGON!! It went with the theme, and we borrowed this costume from Grandma McKneely (who has some really cool dress up things at her house) we found some cool Crayola face painting stuff on clearance (Yay for deals!) and he loved it! Kaitlyn really really wanted to be a cat, she's been wanting to be a cat for awhile and so there was no persuading her to change to a witch or something to go along with our family theme. And I have to admit, she was a pretty cute cat! So Family Night was spent together going door to door in our neighborhood for about an hour, we had a great time being together, there were no meltdowns and at the end of the day our bags were completely full and running over. We've shared our haul with dad's co-workers, and with Grandpa Lewis for his seminary class and have still had plenty for us! Horray!

Pumpkin Time

Frankly, I'm just pleased we found a way to fit this in, and it almost didn't happen, but for Family Night on 24 October we hit the Pumpkin Farm!

Owen's Farm transforms itself into a Pumpkin Patch every year during the Halloween season and we partook in all the activities there. This is a momentous visit because Kaitlyn actually felt brave enough to feed the animals!=)

After feeding the over zealous goats, looking at some long horn cows, and some super cute rabbits (I even for a moment considered getting one as a pet, I was vetoed), we lined up to wait for our hayride. It was fun, and we were lucky it wasn't too crowded so we were the only ones on the ride.



Then it was time for each of us to choose our pumpkins. We tried to get them to pose on these bails of hay and this was as good as it was going to get......